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The GOP-proposed redistricting plan in Texas could dramatically weaken the voting power of Black and Latino residents.
In a new article for TIME, Texas State Rep. Vince Perez (D-El Paso) cited exactly how much the proposed map would dilute Black and Latino voting power.
“Under this map, my team and I estimate it would take roughly 445,000 white residents to secure one member of Congress, but about 1.4 million Latino residents and 2 million Black residents to secure the same,” Perez, who represents House District 77 in El Paso, said. “The political ‘worth’ of a Latino Texan is cut to one-third of a white Texan’s, and for Black Texans, to one-fifth.”
Latinos now make up a larger portion of Texas’s 31 million residents than in California. Texas also has more Black residents than Georgia. However, the proposed map, backed by Texas Republicans and supported by President Donald Trump, would give white voters control over at least 26 of the state’s 38 congressional seats, while splitting Latino and Black neighborhoods to dilute their influence.
“These lines knit 90% of the state’s white voting power across a 14-hour drive from El Paso to the Louisiana border,” Perez said. “Meanwhile, Latino and Black communities are sliced into pieces too small to choose their own representatives.”
Perez noted that three of the proposed “Latino-majority” districts are seemingly only Latino in name, as their boundaries have been drawn to lower the share of Latino voting-age citizens and include high-turnout white precincts.
The Texas Democrat called the proposal “racial engineering."
“Maps like this don’t just entrench a party; they entrench a racial hierarchy,” Perez said. “When districts are drawn to dilute their votes, the message is that citizenship is conditional and equal protection negotiable.”
The Texas Senate could vote on Friday (August 22) to approve new congressional maps, which may give Republicans as many as five more House seats in next year’s midterm elections.
Perez said the map sends a dangerous message to Black and Latino residents.
“That their voices don’t count—not because of their ideas, but because of their race," he said.
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